Redtail Rise miscommunication leads to everything that has ever happened in the whole of the world

For @Ancelin, but @Avicus can gate crash too for potential IC drama if you like! Other tags for reference.

When the meeting was adjourned and the wolves of the Rise dispersed to make their preparations for war, Aventus went to make preparations as well. Only his were for a different objective.

He had told Ancelin they would be leaving soon to search for @Atreus and he had meant it, but now there was a new urgency behind the need to go. Suppose Nyra was the reason Atreus was missing? Suppose she was the reason @Arielle had never come home? Where before it was a need to discover his missing son's fate, now it was an even stronger need to keep his remaining child out of the crosshairs.

Aves did not comport himself in the manner of a man on the verge of flight as he crossed the rise and stood at the edge of the woods, deciding on a route to take from what he could see, but nor did he dawdle. The day was not yet over when he returned to the rendezvous to locate his son.

Ancelin, he said when he found the boy and drew him aside. We go now to find your brother.

ancelin, put through sparring once more, left his playmates behind. he had been stalking fieldmice alone when aventus found him. the pointed way that his father moved, the set of his dark jaw; these things told ancelin that
yes.
slowly he straightened. he looked at his father, then at the land. his indigo eyes took in the details of the rise beneath the snow, and then his gaze was on aventus once more.
"i'm ready, dad." 
and part of him wondered if they would come back. this was his home. it called to him through every step, every rustle of wind in the trees, every scratchmark in the burned place.
and yet the wind outside the rise beckoned him in a new way. a sensation clenched his stomach and he took a step. "what about aunt avicus?" his face was solemn. "someone died. what if others die while we're away?"

speaking of aunt Avicus.

she meandered into father and son's rendezvous, brows knitted in concern. she'd caught the word "go" and her hackles were raised.

obviously, she doesn't begrudge Aventus his search for his wife.

but if there's no Rise to come back to. . .

you're leaving now? she asks, teeth set slightly. she's holding the panic at bay. for if Aventus and Ancelin go, her numbers drop significantly. and she can't have that.

Aventus didn’t have the answers to the question his son asked.

He believed that chasing after Nyra was a surefire way to ensure more deaths. She would wreak havoc and miraculously escape afterward. That was what she did. Aventus could not understand it, only that chasing her was as futile as clasping water in his teeth.

On the other hand, Redtail Rise was more capable than most. Even the youths of this pack were deadly in their own right, raised by survivalists, by killers. His sister was plenty capable all on her own. She would lead them well.

War is... Complicated, he said, and got no further before Avicus arrived. Aventus reacted immediately, stepping sidelong so his flank was exposed to her and dipping his head with his ears splayed deferentially, but his hackles rippled with unease and tension. If she tried to keep him or Ancelin here by force, he didn’t know what he would do.

My son’s life is more important to me than chasing a ghost, he answered, preparing for an explosion. The statement encompassed both Atreus and Ancelin — finding Atreus was more important than marching to war, and keeping Ancelin safe was more important still than his desire for revenge.

tension immediately entered the meeting, smothering the boy. his ears splayed, though his eyes lifted to hear what his dad was going to say. 
war is complicated
chasing a ghost.
smartly gleaning that this was more important to aunt avicus than it was to his dad, ancelin was nevertheless torn between duty to his family and duty to the rise, not to mention that it felt — ominous not to be along for it.
but he stayed quiet, knowing that in the end he would go to find his brother. it was something he had to do.

a ghost?! in pelt color, only.

'hhee killedh one of our own, Avicus rejoins—or has he forgotten?

she'd hoped her brother would at least stay to see her dead.

she, who had killed their mother!

she is undoubtedly furious, and riled up with that fury, but she also knows Aventus well enough to back down. neither of them are changing any minds or hearts; they're made up.

they've long been made up.

be 'hhafe, she tells him, eyes cold and hard but her words genuine. her tail lashes behind her, punctuating the things she could not say. come back 'hhoon.

it's not even an order, nor a request—but a prayer to the heavens as winter sets in cold around them.

fading! <3

in the end, ancelin removed himself with aventus. atreus and arielle for now mattered more than the rise.
but inside himself he was conflicted, torn between duty to the other redtail wolves and his own father.
his steps would be determined all the same.